The National Christian Foundation, the country’s biggest Christian charitable organization, is no longer requiring the new tenant to adhere to Christian philosophy.

When evangelist Dwight L. Moody founded Northfield Mount Hermon School on the site in 1879, he intended it as a school that propagated progressive Christian values. Among its first students were Native Americans and children of slaves.

As recently as 2004, the well-kept 217-acre campus was bustling with life as students passed between its grand buildings to take classes or lounge in their dorm rooms. Since then, however, the silence has been palpable.

In 2004, Northfield consolidated with Mount Hermon, its sister campus in Gill. Five years later, the school sold the Northfield campus to Steve Green, president of the Hobby Lobby crafts store chain and a proponent of Christian education and values. Offering the property for free, Green was on the brink of turning it over to Grand Canyon University, a for-profit Christian college based in Arizona. After doing an assessment, however, Grand Canyon determined that the associated costs of maintaining the campus would be too high.

Although Green had vowed to continue Moody’s mission, the campus has proved hard to give away. The Green Scholar Initiative looked at several other Christian-based suitors, including an Asian prep school, a liberal arts college, a music school and a leadership training center, before turning the property over to the National Christian Foundation, along with the responsibility for finding a tenant.

It appears to be on the brink of doing just that. Aimee Minnich, president of the foundation’s Heartland office in Kansas, has announced that the list of candidates has been narrowed to five and could soon be winnowed to two or three. Minnich has not named those potential tenants, however.

Any new tenant, especially one with a thriving student body, is almost certain to spur the economy in Northfield, an otherwise rather sleepy town. Grand Canyon had projected an enrollment of 5,000. Although some residents have qualms about hosting a flock of Christians, others welcome the thought, if only for the money the students, teachers and parents will likely bring to the area.

Minnich said the foundation will almost certainly announce the finalists by Christmas.